Whether it’s a coffee in hand as we walk through the office door, or a way to beat the 3pm slump, many of us rely on our local barista to get us through our working day.
National dietary guidelines have become an easy target for those looking for a scapegoat for bad diets in rich countries. And a BMJ article about draft US guidelines adds further fuel for the fire.
Are you a “carb craver” or “chocaholic”? We often use language associated with addiction to describe our relationships with food. But is it really possible to be addicted to certain types of food?
Hippocrates said circa 400BC that “food should be our medicine and medicine should be our food”. He would probably turn in his grave if he saw the amount of highly processed, sugary food and drinks marketed…
The NHS is 67 years old, on its knees and struggling, and its patients are not doing much better. Launching the Labour Party’s new plans for public health today – it’s an election year after all – the…
When it comes to illnesses linked to poor health choices, there is good news and bad news. The good news is that the rates at which people die from them have been falling for some time. The bad news is…
We all know obesity is a common, serious, and costly health issue. But while government action has stalled and the debate rages on about how best to combat this growing public health disaster, junk food…
Over the past three decades, the Australasia region has outpaced other regions of the world with the largest absolute increase in adult obesity. Poor diet and high body mass index have overtaken tobacco…
The mere sight of a slice of gooey chocolate cake, a cheesy pizza, or a sizzling burger can drive us to eat these foods. In terms of evolution we show preference for high calorie foods as they are an important…
Rats are very useful for studying human eating behaviour. Both rats and humans are omnivores, and both use flavour conditioning – learning through taste and experience which foods are good to eat and which…
Both research and popular media tell us that emotions and eating are intrinsically related. How many times have we seen a character in a TV show reaching for the ice-cream tub when feeling particularly…
On Saturday night, just hours before the latest quarter-finals of the World Cup, viewers watching SBS World News were exposed to over two and a half minutes of marketing for Coca-Cola. And that’s not even…
Apart from treating the ill and injured, public hospitals are workplaces that – positively or negatively – affect the health and well-being of their employees. Ensuring easy access to healthy food and…
Health professionals and parents appear to disagree about what determines children’s food preferences. While the former often take the view that healthy foods and the absence of “junk food” in the home…
Supermarkets are an essential part of modern living – open almost all the time, selling almost everything, and selling it cheap. Nowhere is this more true than in Australia. Coles and Woolworths, our two…
Senior Lecturer in Environmental Sustainability, School of Life and Environmental Sciences, Faculty of Science, Engineering & Built Environment, Deakin University